It was probably too optimistic to assume that Rare's old Nintendo 64 classics such as Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, and Perfect Dark would appear on Nintendo's upcoming virtual console download service now that the developer is part of the Microsoft empire. Sure enough, word from last week's Game Developers Conference is that due to Microsoft's new hand in Rare's business, these old classics won't be helping to line Nintendo's pockets in the next generation.

Also sitting things out is everyone's favorite N64 multiplayer shooter, Goldeneye 007. Consider the licensing boondoggle behind that game: it was published by Nintendo, developed by Rare (which is now owned by Microsoft), contains the James Bond characters and scenarios owned by both the Broccoli family (producers of Bond films) & Ian Fleming (creator of Bond himself), plus today the video game rights to the Bond series are held by Electronic Arts. Convincing all of these entities to go along with a Goldeneye reissue is just not likely despite the fact that they'd all stand to make some nice residuals from a downloadable re-release. Office politics, business pride, and overall marketplace competition stand in the way of bringing back James Bond's greatest video game adventure.

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James Bond Will Not Return

It was probably too optimistic to assume that Rare's old Nintendo 64 classics such as Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, and Perfect Dark would appear on Nintendo's upcoming virtual console download service now that the developer is part of the Microsoft empire. Sure enough, word from last week's Game Developers Conference is that due to Microsoft's new hand in Rare's business, these old classics won't be helping to line Nintendo's pockets in the next generation.

Also sitting things out is everyone's favorite N64 multiplayer shooter, Goldeneye 007. Consider the licensing boondoggle behind that game: it was published by Nintendo, developed by Rare (which is now owned by Microsoft), contains the James Bond characters and scenarios owned by both the Broccoli family (producers of Bond films) & Ian Fleming (creator of Bond himself), plus today the video game rights to the Bond series are held by Electronic Arts. Convincing all of these entities to go along with a Goldeneye reissue is just not likely despite the fact that they'd all stand to make some nice residuals from a downloadable re-release. Office politics, business pride, and overall marketplace competition stand in the way of bringing back James Bond's greatest video game adventure.